, 1887-10-19
THE SNAKE CHARMER.

herent madness, or faint in the blood, but
i simply say-as l would that l nave a
lock of gray hair in a bad place on my
head and a mole on my neck-that l am
irresistibly drawn toward tropical snakes
and ave a leaning in the direction of
fakirs and jugglers. My friend Harcourt
is as much drawn the other way, but /
swear / had no notion of the probable
effect on him the day l drew him into a
little cross street or court, where a num-
Der of very fat, well preserved boas were
lolling in the pleasant obscurity of a dark
glass case on a pile of semi-white
blankets.
Ha~rcourt, something of a dreamer
generally, followed me in my searchings
after wonders, as amiably as a collie,
with only an understanding in a tacit
sort of way that l was not to introduce
him to women who would fancy it an in
cumbent b~enevolence to pull him out and
make him talk.
1 hardly think he knew where we were
until 1 forcibly plucked him in out of the
unrestricted glare of a July day to the
gaudily papered passageway to the mu-
scum.
'Harcourt, l nave some lovely speci-
mems to show you-mottled boa and CO.
bras, and an awfully swell kind
of snake charmer done up in the
true Oriental fimsies-red Golf,
bracelets of sequins, bare ankles,
and all that. The Rajah is a snake you
should know. Upon my life, l think he
begins to now me-"
With the best intentions in the world,
l gave Harcourt a little push and he
stumbled against the cage with a dull
thump on the glass which reused Rajah.
and, rearing his head very sensibly, he
gazed straight into our eyes. As pale
and limp as n live man could ever be-
come, my friend shrank back and seemed
suddenly bereft of his legs. l steadied
him up, and really thought on the mo-
ment that the ministerial Harcourt had
imbibed ansextra glass of some spirited
him in the air. He was pitiably weak,
and as ghastly as if he had seen his grand
mothers ghost in a camera obscura.
The strong, rollicking breeze brought
him round, and almost quite himself he
led the way to one of the little wayside
parks so refreshingly frequent in the large
cities of this country. He laid his hat IN
the park seat and ~nervously wiped his
forehead, while tried to entice a pigeon
from the gravel with plum cake, seeming
not to notice his strange agitation.
He reverted to the affair uppermost in
my mind himself in his painfully straight
forward way:
Don't laugh, Strahan, when l tell
you that | am a slave to an all pervading
dominant horror. l cannot look at
snakes, although once l really believed
that nature intended to inspire admira-
ton in making a brown and green boa.
And women of the tropics were once my
alteration, with their brown, velvety
skins, black eyes and graceful move
ments." He shuddered. Now 1 can
never see the one without being reminded
of the other. In fact, l think there has
been a sort of sympathy between women
and snakes since the conquest of Eve by
the Serpent. Both are fascinating. The
serpent fastens you with its gaze like a
woman; the woman stings you to death
like the snake. Let me tell you my
story. Perhaps then you may find some
excuse for me, and tolerance of some
thing which is not superstition, heaven
knows!'
l could not think of anything to say, so
l said nothing.
Harcourt, as l AVE explained, was
painfully direct. l do not like verbiage,
but l shun a man generally who dives
headlong into a thing n drags you with
him. Yet l liked Harcourt, as we some
times do a chap who we fancy has suf-
fered his full measure.
"Thereare pages in my life, Strahan,
which you do not know; but you do
know that l was one of her majesty's
foo guards in India, and that l sold my
commission on account of fever to De
Land, of the Hawkhurst Blues, and left
before my time. l was a wild fellow in
those days. A few hours before my de-
parture, while returning from a tiger
hunt in which l and my followers were
shamefully outwitted, l ran across the
tent of a snake charmer-a v~illainously
dirty old Hindoo, who with horrible yells
and im~precations made the twilight hid
eous by cudgeling his daughter, as he
swore she was, while she asseverated,
with lifted arm to Allah that she was
simply his slave. l interfered, of course.
We had a free fight, leaving the old fakir
hors de combat, and l bore off the child
Zobeide-one of the l~oveliest creatures
even then that had ever seen, and as
wild as a hawk.
at was lucky hat l had been fully
prepared to quit the country. AS it was
the boys Of my mess begged me to have
nothing t. do with Parsee, Hindoo or
Arab women-to leave this lark eyed
hour behind. Seeing me obdurate Capt.
Bellamy said:
"'Do as you will, Harcourt; but you
may regret the day you did SO foolish a
thing. Kindly remember that I warned
you
"And how often l havel
"But then-it was with a gloom of ex-
u~ltation l admitted to myself the entire
ownership of anything SO untainted and
SO beautiful as Zobeide. She was as de-
licious to my senses as a pomegranate bios
som, and was gratitude itself. Poor,
starved, unloved little thing! She twined
about me like a vine" Again that con-
vulsive shudder.
"'You recognize the old routine-the
name of disposing of such cases? My
maiden aunt declared it scandalous, but
consented to chaperone my protege. Into
her hands / gave Zobeide for n year, stip-
ulating that she be taught all Christian
graces. And so / left her to tapestries,
French verbs and the piano.
81 confess l thought very little about
her. The only life between me and my es-
tates was severed by the death, while hunt